How to manipulate people.

There are times in life where people don’t give you what you want, but you don’t have to settle for disappointment. When life gives you lemons, manipulate the lemon salesman.

Disclaimer: Before I begin here, I want to stress how unethical it is to use manipulation techniques for personal benefit. However, to be fair, we all do it more or less and can use this as a guide to spot manipulation in your everyday interactions and protect yourself from manipulative people.

Through psychological studies and research, the easiest way to manipulate is playing on emotion. This is because its difficult to think rationally when wound up in a certain feeling. The key is to guide someone to feel a certain way that benefits you, however this requires skills in acting. So you want a raise? Guiding your boss to a state of (positive) empathy will help your cause! People will help you if they feel with you. Whether you want to incite fear, sympathy, or anything else will depend on the situation, so it’s important to master your own emotions.

But first, you need to be trustworthy. People who’ve been manipulated a number of times before are generally on the lookout for this kind of behaviour and don’t trust people easily, so you need to watch for signs. If you believe trust is an issue, the quickest way around that problem is to share something very personal and very private with the target. It’s always best if it’s relevant to them, or if they feel you trust them enough to confide something so personal.

Psychological manipulation is a dirty and devious business that requires you to be incredibly two-faced. Sometimes in life you want to prioritise your own needs first if that means getting ahead. Naturally this is only touching the surface of the topic, and there are many other techniques that you find here, if so interested.